American woman creates animal spay/neuter organization in Romania

Nancy Janes saw a need and found a way to fill that need even though it was on another continent. She is the Founder, CEO and President of Romania Animal Rescue (RAR), an organization dedicated to improving the lives of street dogs in the Eastern European nation of Romania.

During Communism the policies of dictator Nicolai Ceausescu rapidly changed agricultural Romania to an urban society suffering from overcrowded cities and severe shortages of food and electricity. Before Communism, Romanians worked on farms with their companion animals. Considered workers more than pets, Romanian farmers and ranchers used dogs to herd sheep and cattle and cats for pest control. After Communism, many rural families were forced to work in urban areas and weren't allowed to take their pets with them into the tiny apartment complexes where they were forced to live. Thousands of dogs were left to fend for themselves in the countryside. After Ceausescu's trial and execution in 1989, the dog population had grown into the millions.

Enter Nancy Janes. In 2001, Janes was a on a hiking trip of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania with two friends. The Californian had been reading the book Balkan Ghosts by Robert Kaplan sparking her interest in the country. While traveling, she couldn't believe the number of stray dogs roaming the towns and villages. Janes realized these dogs needed help. Upon her return she tried to get existing US organizations involved, but nothing developed. Janes decided to create a charity herself. In 2003 she registered Romania Animal Rescue as a nonprofit. She said the hardest part was finding someone who would know how to set up a charity that would work in Romania. "The person who helped me was with the IRS," she said.

The RAR have set up "spayathons" throughout the country and since 2004, have performed over 8,000 spays and neuters. The RAR's goal is to sterilize 80% of the street animals in Romania as they believe this will achieve zero population growth. These "spayathons"  take place in selected cities and towns. RAR has partnered with several Romanian veterinarians, such as Dr. Aurelian Stefan, DVM, to perform these "spayathons."  Dr. Stefan is paid $22 per spay/neuter, with vaccination and parasite treatment and provided supplies that are donated from the US. The operation recently went mobile when Nancy was able to provide a caravan that was turned into a mobile spay/neuter clinic. The caravan is driven to villages without local vet care.

When she started, she was told people in Romania wouldn't bring animals to the RAR and that the organization would need to catch the dogs. "Well, we don't have the funds for dogs catchers," she says, "so I decided to just try and see if we offered free and very high quality spay/neuter, would people participate? The answer is YES!" Janes adds that people have been bringing in dogs that they either own or dogs that they care for on the street. "It has been a wonderful experience because the people actually get involved in this campaign to help the animals."

Another way the RAR helps Romania is to educate people, especially children, about animal welfare. Many older adults still hold their communists teachings that dogs are pests. Romania is also a country that is still struggling to find economic development and it is difficult for Romanians to be concerned about stray dogs when they can't support their own families. The RAR has worked hard to promote animal welfare education through news reports (see below), billboards and classroom education during their "Compassion Is Cool" campaign.

A program that makes RAR unique is the veterinary training program that has been working well in Romania. US doctors travel to Romania with supplies to train local vets on modern spay/neuter procedures. Each training program costs an average of $6,000. Through avid networking, such as their Facebook page, they have a waiting list of organizations that want to send their vets to Romania, but they still need help raising funds and supplies for the trips.

Although the organization's main focus has been spay and neuter, Nancy has brought dogs back with her for adoption. She has kept some and adopted others to friends and family. She has also partnered with US and European animal organizations to adopt out Romanian dogs as well. Adoption is something she would like to do more, but it is difficult because there are so many. She has partnered with a local organization, the Romania Animal Rescue Foundation run by Livia Brenner, which works to adopt street dogs into homes throughout Europe.

Slowly, attitudes toward street dogs are changing. Back in 2008, RAR held a fundraiser called "Lords of the Street." An American woman adopted on the of the puppies that appeared as a "Lord." Janes and the woman along with the puppy would meet every evening for dinner and people on the street would inquire about the adorable the puppy, named Ursu, until being told he was from the street. "Then the person would jump back as if the dog carried a contagious disease," Janes says. "Since we were carrying him people assumed he was a purebred and expensive puppy, not a street puppy," she says. Then Janes tells a story from her colleague, Livia Brenner. Brenner was at the Pet Expo in Bucharest last weekend. As she was setting up her adoption booth, a man came by and talked to her about a little puppy on the street nearby. The man told Brenner that he heard it is now trendy to adopt street dogs and was interested in the puppy. As she continued setting up her booth, the man went over, picked up the dog and took him home. "This would have been unheard of a short time ago," Janes says.

Janes says the next "spayathon" is scheduled for April of 2011 in the city of Iasi, however, Dr. Stefan and other local vets in Romania continue to spay and neuter throughout the year.

The RAR has become this former flight attendant's full-time job and it is one she intends to see through although she says they will not get the 80% sterilization rate in her lifetime. "Unfortunately Romania is a large country with millions of street dogs," she says. The need she saw all those years ago is still there.

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